The Prison Poets Of Guantanamo Find a Publisher

[babylonsister]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118217520339739055.html?mod=todays_us_page_one

The Prison Poets Of Guantanamo Find a Publisher
Military Security Clears 22 After Checking for Code;
What's Lost in Translation
By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
June 20, 2007; Page A1



Inmates at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, used pebbles to scratch messages into the foam cups they got with their meals. When the guards weren't looking, they passed the cups from cell to cell. It was a crude but effective way of communicating.

The prisoners weren't passing along escape plans or information about future terrorist attacks. They were sending one another poems.

For years, the U.S. military refused to declassify the poems, arguing that inmates could use the works to pass coded messages to other militants outside. But the military relaxed the ban recently and cleared 22 poems by 17 prisoners for public release.

An 84-page anthology titled "Poems From Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak" will be published in August by the University of Iowa Press, giving readers an unusual glimpse into the emotional lives of the largely nameless and faceless prisoners there.

"When I heard pigeons cooing in the trees/Hot tears covered my face," Sami al Haj wrote in one poem. The al-Jazeera cameraman has been held at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 on suspicion of aiding Islamic militants. "When the lark chirped, my thoughts composed/A message for my son," he went on.


The collection, translated from Arabic, was compiled by Marc Falkoff, a defense lawyer with a literary bent. Mr. Falkoff, who got a Ph.D. in English before he went to law school, represents 17 Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and he dedicated the book to his clients, describing them in the inscription as "my friends inside the wire."

more...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I hope these poems

get to a wide audience.

[BlueIris]

2. Rock on, Iowa.

[Solly Mack]

3. How soon can I get a copy?

[helderheid]

4. Wow.

Speechless. K & R

[Jim__]

5. That's a book that I'll be buying.

We can't understand the real tragedy of Guantanamo until we come face to face with the people we keep there. Their poetry is one way to bring us face to face.